March 2024 highlights the benefits of wetlands

Wetland monitoring is important not only for the data we collect, but also to provide hands on education about why wetlands matter. Wetlands can provide so many benefits to humans and the environment, including creating habitat, flood reduction, filtering out pollution, settling sediment, storing carbon, recharging aquifers that we rely on for drinking water, and providing recreation opportunities for humans! 

While not every wetland provides all of these services, this March we experienced many of these benefits during our monitoring visits. 

Habitat 

Wetlands provide important habitat for many species. This spring we conducted amphibian surveys at each of our sites and saw lots of amphibians! Wetlands are very important for the lifecycles of many amphibians who live in them, rely on them for food and habitat, or use them as nurseries to lay their eggs and protect their young. Unlike lakes and streams, ephemeral wetlands are not wet year-round. The periodic drying of surface water in these wetlands prevents them from being habitat for fish which may eat young salamanders. 

Our spring wetlands made a great nursery for amphibians and provide habitat for adults as well. We saw: 

• mating American toads 
• spotted salamander egg masses 
• larval marbled salamanders 
• northern cricket frogs 
• a southern leopard frog 
• upland chorus frogs 
• northern dusky salamanders 
• southern two-lined salamanders 

There were also several frogs that we couldn’t catch a picture of fast enough to identify. You can view our observations on our iNaturalist page. 

Flood reduction 

Our forested wetland site at Mason Farm is in the floodplain of Morgan Creek. During large rain events, the water from Morgan Creek is able to flow over its banks into the floodplain wetlands where it can be slowed down and sediment settled out. Water from the urbanized areas of Chapel Hill can flow safely into the floodplain at this point in Morgan Creek. Since there are no homes or structures built in the floodplain, there is also no damage to man-made structures. The floodplain wetlands were very wet during our visit and the water almost came up to the tops of some volunteers’ boots! 



At Hemlock Bluffs, the ephemeral pools at our sites can also hold water during high low events in Swift Creek. The pools were full this month for our first visit since last June! 

Cleaning water 

While we will have to wait for the results of our water quality sampling to know how our wetlands affected water pollution this spring, there is a need for wetland filtration at all of our sites.  

Robertson Millpond Preserve is in a rural part of Wake County and is surrounded by agricultural fields. Runoff from these fields can send excess nutrients into waterways, which can cause algal blooms and reduce oxygen availability for aquatic life. 

Mason Farm abuts Finley golf course. In fact, we often find several golf balls in the wetlands while sampling. Like agriculture, runoff from golf courses can send excess nutrients from fertilizers into waterways. 

Hemlock Bluffs is centrally located in a very urban area, which comes with its own pollutants, such as lawn care products, oils, grease, and chemicals.  

Although our water quality samples are only analyzed for nitrogen and phosphorus, we hope that our wetlands are reducing nutrients and other pollutants downstream.  

Protect our wetlands 

For these reasons and many more, protection of our wetlands is important. Now more than ever, NC wetlands are at risk of degradation and destruction due to changes in federal and state regulations impacting their protections.  

Restoration of wetlands is also important. Wetlands can provide us with so many benefits, but can be degraded over time by human impacts. Too many pollutants and nutrients entering a wetland can overwhelm wetlands' capacity to store them. Excessive sediment from upstream flooding can also reduce flood storage. These, among other changes, can negatively impact sensitive plants and wildlife as well. As part of Governor Cooper’s newly issued Executive Order 305, North Carolina has new goals of preserving 1,000,000 acres and restoring another 1,000,000 acres of natural lands, with a focus on wetlands. We are hopeful about what this will mean for North Carolina wetlands in the future. 

Volunteer leadership 

Special thanks to our volunteer team leaders who started leading parts of our monitoring last year. This quarter we had several leaders step up, attend trainings, and take full leadership of monitoring at our sites. Special thanks to Leigh Aultman at Hemlock Bluffs, Paul Jadot at Mason Farm, and Tom Schwarcz at Robertson Millpond. In addition to their site-specific leadership, they along with other volunteer leaders Daphne Vogelsang and Mickey Jo Sorrell, will help one another to lead at all sites.  

Additionally, our committed volunteers Riley Westman and Mike Stokes both earned hats for their many hours of volunteer work on this project. Both Mike and Riley have been helpful in the field and behind the scenes, helping to quality control our data. 

The commitment of our volunteers to monitoring and educating other about wetlands is a major success of this program so far!

Our project team is working on plans for next year. Keep a look out for more monitoring opportunities and a recap of our monitoring data thus far! Until then, we hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a safe and happy new year!